Jonathan N. Olivito

Summary

Jon litigates business and partnership disputes and employment law matters. He represents clients in a variety of industries, including health care, construction, manufacturing, transportation and telecommunications, in state and federal courts and in arbitrations. His clients have included governmental entities, businesses and individuals.

Prior to joining Taft, Jon clerked for the Honorable Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. He helped to draft opinions in employment discrimination, breach of contract, and Section 1983 cases, among others. When the Chief Judge sat by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Jon helped with preparations for oral arguments and worked on opinions involving police misconduct claims and claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). In a criminal case involving material support of terrorism charges, Jon helped to draft opinions on motions brought under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Before his clerkship, Jon was a litigator at a small Columbus-based law firm. While practicing there, he successfully defended a favorable jury verdict before Ohio’s Tenth District Court of Appeals in RAE Assocs., Inc. v. Nexus Commc’ns, Inc., 2015-Ohio-2166, 36 N.E.3d 757 (10th Dist.), a case involving breach of contract, fraud and conversion claims.

Jon earned his J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College Law, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif. He received the 2014 Distinguished Legal Writing Award from The Burton Awards. He was honored by the Ohio State Law Journal with the Donald Teller Memorial Award for the best student Note by a journal member in 2013. He also was honored with CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for receiving the highest grade in Evidence and International Law.

Jon earned a Master of Public Administration from Ohio University and was designated as the Overall Outstanding MPA Student his graduating year. While pursuing his degree, he was a graduate assistant at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. His bachelor's degree is also from Ohio University, where he majored in history and Spanish and minored in psychology. He graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Alpha Theta from the university’s Honors Tutorial College. Jon also studied abroad at two international universities, the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil and the Universidad Pública de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

Jon serves on the board of directors for Halt Violence, a nonprofit organization devoted to reducing violence through conflict mediations and mentoring.